While today relations between England and Scotland are mostly civil, it’s not always been that way. Scotland were long-time allies of France, so in 1513 King James IV of Scotland demanded that the English army withdraw from French Soil. The English, unsurprisingly, declined, so James IV built up an army of 30-40,000 soldiers and invaded northern England.
At this time the Mary Rose was Sir Thomas Howard’s flagship, so when he was ordered to join the troops at Flodden Field, she and the rest of the fleet took him and 1,000 troops and sailors to Newcastle upon Tyne.
There the troops disembarked, and while they made their way on foot to Branxton, where the Battle of Flodden Field was fought on 9th September 1513, the Mary Rose went up to Berwick to pick up the hopefully victorious troops after the battle.
Victorious they were, as the battle, although fought hard by the Scots, resulted in the death of James IV, who was alleged to have been killed with a bill, a bladed staff weapon similar to ones found on the Mary Rose. It’s unlikely that particular bill would have still been on the Mary Rose 32 years later when she sank though!
In 2013, the Mary Rose Museum became part of the Flodden Eco Museum, a collection of sites across the UK related to the battle.
